Triple Alliance and Entente. Epicenters of contradictions and military-political blocs

The Entente and the Triple Alliance are military-political associations, each of which pursued its own interests; they were opposing forces during the First World War.

The Entente is a political union of three friendly states - Russia, England and France, created in 1895.

Unlike the Triple Alliance, which was a military bloc even before the Entente, it became a full-fledged military association only when gun shots thundered over Europe in 1914. It was in this year that England, France and Russia signed an agreement under which they committed themselves not to enter into agreements with their opponents.

The Triple Alliance emerged from Austria-Hungary in 1879. A little later, namely in 1882, they were joined by Italy, which completed the process of formation of this military-political bloc. He played a significant role in creating the situations that led to the outbreak of the First World War. In accordance with the clauses of the agreement, signed for a five-year period, the countries participating in this agreement pledged not to participate in actions directed against one of them and to provide all possible support for each other. According to their agreement, all three parties were to serve as so-called “backers.” In the event of an attack on Italy, Germany and Austria-Hungary became its reliable defense. In the case of Germany, its supporters, Italy and Austria-Hungary, who were a trump card in the event of Russian participation in military operations.

The Triple Alliance was concluded on a secret basis and with minor reservations on the part of Italy. Since she did not want to enter into conflict relations with Great Britain, she warned her allies not to count on her support if any of them were attacked by Great Britain.

The creation of the Triple Alliance served as an impetus for the formation of a counterweight in the form of the Entente, which included France, Russia and Great Britain. It was this confrontation that led to the outbreak of the First World War.

The Triple Alliance lasted until 1915, since Italy already participated in military operations on the side of the Entente. This redistribution of forces was preceded by the neutrality of this country in relations between Germany and France, with which it was not beneficial for the “native” to spoil relations.

The Triple Alliance was eventually replaced by a Quadruple Alliance, in which Italy was replaced by the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.

The Entente and the Triple Alliance were extremely interested in the territory of the Balkan Peninsula, the Near Peninsula and Germany wanted to capture part of France and its colonies; Austria-Hungary needed control of the Balkans; England pursued the goal of weakening Germany's position, securing a global market monopoly, and also maintaining naval power; France dreamed of returning the territories of Alsace and Lorraine taken away during the Franco-Prussian War; Russia wanted to take root in the Balkans and seize the western

The greatest number of contradictions were associated with the Balkan Peninsula. Both the first and second blocs wanted to strengthen their positions in this region. The struggle began with peaceful diplomatic methods, accompanied by parallel preparation and strengthening of the countries' military forces. Germany and Austria-Hungary actively took up the modernization of troops. Russia was the least prepared.

The event that served and prompted the start of hostilities was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Serbia by a student. A shot at a moving car hit not only Ferdinand, but also his wife. On July 15, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia...

"cordial consent" (from the French Entente cordiale), - an imperialist bloc of England, France and Tsarist Russia (otherwise known as the "Triple Entente"), which took shape in 1904-07 and during the First World War 1914-18, grouped against the German coalition a number of states, including the USA (together with members of A. 25 states). After the October Revolution, A., together with the USA, organized a counter-revolutionary intervention against the Soviet state. Exacerbation of international contradictions in pre-imperialist and imperialist countries. periods associated with the struggle for the division and repartition of the world led in the late 19th - early 20th centuries to the formation of opposing military-political groupings of powers.Germany, whose role in Europe after the Frankfurt Peace of 1871 increased significantly, concluded in 1879 an alliance with Austria-Hungary (see Austro-German Treaty of 1879), Italy joined in 1882, which marked the beginning of the Triple Alliance of 1882. The first response to the creation of an aggressive bloc led by Germany was the Franco-Russian alliance of 1891-93. during the 80-90s. 19th century and at the very beginning of the 20th century. England continued to adhere to its traditions. foreign policy course of “brilliant isolation” (Splendid isolation) and remained aloof from the blocs, hoping to achieve their goals by playing on the contradictions between both unions, etc. retain its role as an international arbitrator However, the change in the balance of forces that occurred during the era of imperialism made the Anglo-Germans the main ones. contradictions that pushed into the background the clashes of interests of England with France and Russia on the basis of colonial rivalry. The rise of Anglo-German. antagonism and failure of English attempts. diplomacy in 1898-1901 to achieve a compromise agreement with Germany prompted England to rapprochement with France, and then, after the Russian-Japanese. war of 1904-05, and with Russia, which resulted in the signing of the Anglo-French agreement of 1904 and the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907, which actually formalized the creation of A. However, unlike the Triple Alliance, which in the initial stage represented a close military-political. bloc with certain military. obligations for all its participants, A. due to the position taken by the English. pr-vom, was a military-political. grouping - “consent”, in which not all countries had specific military forces. obligations. Russia and France were allies bound by mutual wars. obligations defined by the military. convention of 1892, and subsequent decisions of the general staffs of both states. At the same time, English pr-in, despite contacts between the English. and French general staffs and military. -mor. command, established respectively in 1906 and 1912, refused to accept certain military orders. obligations. A.'s education softened the differences between its participants, but did not eliminate them. These disagreements have been revealed more than once (such as, for example, friction between England and Russia in Iran at the beginning of the 20th century, between England and France, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other, during the Bosnian crisis of 1908-09 and the Balkan wars 1912-13, etc.), which Germany took advantage of in an attempt to tear Russia away from Africa (see Bjork Treaty of 1905, Potsdam Agreement of 1911). However, financial the dependence of the tsarist government on France and the invaders. German plans imperialism towards Russia doomed these German attempts to failure. In turn, the countries of Austria, preparing for war with Germany and its allies, took steps to separate Italy and Austria-Hungary from the Triple Alliance (see Barrera-Prinetti agreement of 1902). Although Italy formally remained part of the Triple Alliance before the outbreak of World War I, the ties of the countries of A. with it grew stronger, and in May 1915 Italy went over to the side of A. Since the beginning of World War I, unleashed by Germany, the countries of A. together. On Sept. 1914 in London, an agreement was signed between England, France and Russia on the non-conclusion of a separate peace, replacing the allied war. contract In Oct. Japan joined this agreement in 1915, back in August. 1914 declared war on Germany. During the war. actions against weapons. Austro-German forces bloc's real participation, the size of the casualties suffered in the war and the significance of the military. The efforts for a victorious outcome of the war by the member countries of Azerbaijan were different. The hardships of the war fell most heavily on Russia, as well as on France and the territory. of which the main ones were deployed. military operations. Rus. The army played a decisive role in the collapse of the Germans. plan for a fleeting war (see Schliefen plan) and helped prevent war. defeat of France (see East Prussian operation of 1914, Breakthrough of the Austro-German front of 1916). During the war, new states gradually joined Armenia. By the end of the war, the states of the anti-German coalition (not counting Russia, which withdrew from the war after the October Revolution) included: England, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Haiti, Guatemala, Greece, Honduras, China, Cuba, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru , Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Siam, USA, France, Uruguay, Hijaz, Ecuador, Japan. A. became a general designation for states that fought against Germany and its allies. Just as Germany and its allies developed an imperialist program for redividing the world, the main participants A. - From the first days of the war, England, France and Russia also entered into secret negotiations on the goals of the war, which were in direct contradiction with the official ones. statements about defense nature of the war and were aimed at seizing foreign territories. The Anglo-Franco-Russian agreement of 1915, which provided for the transfer of the Black Sea straits to tsarist Russia, the London Treaty of 1915 between Africa and Italy, which determined the territory. the acquisition of Italy at the expense of Austria, Turkey and Albania, the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 on the division of the Asian possessions of Turkey between England, France and Russia and certain other agreements determined the carefully hidden but real imperialist. war program of participants A. After Vel. Oct. socialist imperialist revolutions circles of the countries of Azerbaijan and the USA organized weapons. intervention against the Soviets. state with the goal of overthrowing the Soviets. power, the dismemberment of Russia and its transformation into a colony of imperialists. It's already December 23rd. 1917 England and France signed an agreement on joint intervention against the Soviet Union. Russia and its subsequent division. In March 1918, A.'s intervention began; The USA and a number of other states actively participated in it, together with the countries of Azerbaijan proper. However, A.'s campaigns against the Sov. state (see Civil War and foreign military intervention in the USSR 1918-20) were defeated by the Soviets. people led by the Communist. party. The failure of the Antis. Azerbaijan's policies deepened the contradictions of capitalism and led Azerbaijan to complete collapse. In the vast bourgeois The historiography of A., with many shades, two directions are clearly visible. The first of these directions, represented by German. memoirists and historians (B. Bülow, Likhnovsky, Tirpitz, Erzberger, Hartung, Oncken, Brandenburg, Rachfal, Plen, etc.) and some Amer. Historians (S. Fey, Langer, etc.), seeking to rehabilitate Germany and relieve it of responsibility for the outbreak of the World War in 1914, have a negative attitude towards Austria, seeing in it a means of “encircling Germany.” The second direction - Ch. arr. French memoirists and historians (R. Poincaré, J. Caillot, Paleologue, Deschanel, Pinon, Renouvin, etc.) and English. publicists and historians (E. Gray, Buchanan, Lloyd George, G. Nicholson, etc.) - on the contrary, blaming Germany, trying to justify the creation of A. by the aggressiveness of the Germans. ruling circles. Truly scientific. coverage of the issue of history. the role of A. is given in the works of V.I. Lenin. Sov. ist. science gave scientific development of a number of problems related to the history of Armenia and its influence on the development of international. relations at the end of the 19th century - the beginning. 20th centuries Publ.: International relations in the era of imperialism. Documents from the archives of the Tsarist and Provisional Governments of 1878-1917, M., 1931-40; Sat. agreements between Russia and other states. 1856-1917, (M.), 1952; Doc-you ext. politics of the USSR (vol. 1-3), M., 1957-59; British documents on the origins of the war 1898-1914, ed. by G. P. Gooch and H. Temperley, v. 1-11, L., 1926-38; Documents diplomatiques fran?ais (1871-1914), ser. 1-3, P., 1929-60; Die grosse Politik der Europ?ischen Kabinette 1871-1914, Bd 1-40, V., 1922-27. Lit.: Lenin V.I., Letters from Afar. Letter 4. How to achieve peace?, Works, 4th ed., vol. 23; his, Letter to the workers of Europe and America, ibid., vol. 28; his, Report at the II All-Russian Congress of Communist Organizations of the Peoples of the East on November 22, 1919, ibid., vol. 30; his, Political Report of the Central Committee on December 2 (at the VIII All-Russian Conference of the RCP (b) on December 2-4, 1919), ibid.; History of diplomacy, vol. 2-3, M. - L., 1945; Tarle E.V., Europe in the era of imperialism 1871-1919, Soch., vol. 5, M., 1958; Yerusalimsky A.S., Ext. German politics and diplomacy imperialism at the end of the 19th century, M. - L., 1948; Manfred A.Z., Ext. politics of France 1871-91, M., 1952; Romanov B. A., Essays on diplomatic issues. history of the Russian-Japanese war 1895-1907, 2nd ed., M. - L., 1955; Stein B. E., “The Russian Question” at the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920), (M.), 1949; Renouvin P., Rr?clin E., Hardy G., La paix arm?e et la grande guerre (1871-1919), P., 1947. A. Z. Manfred. Moscow.

Formation of the Entente.

Entente.

Military-political blocs during World War I.

Entente- a military-political bloc of Russia, England and France, created as a counterweight to the “Triple Alliance” ( A-Entente); formed mainly in 1904-1907 and completed the delimitation of the great powers on the eve of the First World War. The term arose in 1904, initially to designate the Anglo-French alliance, and the expression was used l'Entente cordiale(“cordial agreement”) in memory of the short-lived Anglo-French alliance in the 1840s, which bore the same name.

The creation of the Entente was a reaction to the creation of the Triple Alliance and the strengthening of Germany, an attempt to prevent its hegemony on the continent, initially from Russia (France initially took an anti-German position), and then from Great Britain. The latter, in the face of the threat of German hegemony, was forced to abandon the traditional policy of “brilliant isolation” and move to - however, also traditional - a policy of blocking against the strongest power on the continent. Particularly important incentives for this choice of Great Britain were the German naval program and the colonial claims of Germany. In Germany, in turn, this turn of events was declared an “encirclement” and served as a reason for new military preparations, positioned as purely defensive.

The confrontation between the Entente and the Triple Alliance led to the First World War, where the enemy of the Entente and its allies was the Central Powers bloc, in which Germany played a leading role.

The Triple Alliance is a military-political bloc of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, formed in 1879-1882, which marked the beginning of the division of Europe into hostile camps and played an important role in the preparation and outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918).

The main organizer of the Triple Alliance was Germany, which concluded a military alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1879. After this, in 1882, Italy joined them. The core of an aggressive military group was created in Europe, directed against Russia and France.

On May 20, 1882, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy signed the secret Treaty of the Triple Alliance ( Austro-German Treaty of 1879, also known as Dual alliance- Treaty of Alliance between Austria-Hungary and Germany; signed in Vienna on October 7, 1879.

Imprisoned for a period of 5 years, subsequently renewed several times. Article 1 established that if one of the contracting parties was attacked by Russia, then both parties were obliged to come to the aid of each other. Article 2 provided that in the event of an attack on one of the contracting parties by any other power, the other party undertakes to maintain at least benevolent neutrality. If the attacking side receives Russian support, then Article 1 comes into force.

The treaty, directed primarily against Russia and France, was one of the agreements that led to the creation of a military bloc led by Germany (Triple Alliance) and to the division of European countries into two hostile camps, which subsequently opposed each other in the 1st World War war).

They made a commitment (for a period of 5 years) not to take part in any alliances or agreements directed against one of these countries, to consult on issues of a political and economic nature and to provide mutual support. Germany and Austria-Hungary pledged to provide assistance to Italy in the event that it “would, without a direct challenge on its part, be attacked by France.” Italy was to do the same in the event of an unprovoked French attack on Germany. Austria-Hungary was assigned the role of a reserve in case Russia entered the war. The allies took note of Italy's statement that if one of the powers that attacked its partners was Great Britain, then Italy would not provide them with military assistance (Italy was afraid of entering into conflict with Great Britain, since it could not withstand its strong navy). The parties pledged, in the event of common participation in the war, not to conclude a separate peace and to keep the Treaty of the Triple Alliance secret.

The treaty was renewed in 1887 and 1891 (with additions and clarifications made) and automatically extended in 1902 and 1912.

The policy of the countries participating in the Triple Alliance was characterized by increasing aggressiveness. In response to the creation of the Triple Alliance, a Franco-Russian alliance took shape in 1891-1894, an Anglo-French agreement was concluded in 1904, an Anglo-Russian agreement was concluded in 1907, and the Entente was formed.

Since the end of the 19th century, Italy, which was suffering losses from the customs war waged against it by France, began to change its political course. In 1902, she entered into an agreement with France, pledging to remain neutral in the event of a German attack on France.

After the conclusion of the London Pact, Italy entered World War I on the side of the Entente, and the Triple Alliance collapsed (1915). After Italy left the alliance, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire joined Germany and Austria-Hungary to form the Quadruple Alliance.

Formation of the Triple Alliance and the Entente.

Since the collective security system ceased to exist, each country began to look for an ally. France was the first to begin this search. After the Franco-Prussian War, on its eastern border there were now not several dozen German monarchies independent from each other, but a single empire, surpassing France in population and economic power. In addition, France was forced to transfer its territories to the enemy: the province of Alsace and a third of the province of Lorraine. This gave Germany a strategic advantage: it had access to the plain of Northern France in its hands. From this moment, realizing the impossibility of a one-on-one fight, France itself begins an active search for allies to balance the power of the new Germany.

German Chancellor Bismarck, who did more than anyone else to unify the country, saw the main goal of his diplomacy in preventing an alliance of France with other great powers. He understood how vulnerable the position of the German Empire was, which, unlike France, was surrounded on three sides by great powers: Austria-Hungary, Russia and France itself. An alliance of the latter with any of the remaining two exposed Germany to the prospect of a war on two fronts, which Bismarck considered a direct road to defeat.

Triple Alliance

A way out of this situation was found along the lines of rapprochement with Austria-Hungary. The latter, in turn, entering into increasingly intense rivalry with Russia in the Balkans, needed an ally.

Consolidating this rapprochement, Germany and Austria-Hungary signed a treaty in 1879, under which they pledged to support each other in the event of an attack by the Russian Empire. Italy joined the alliance of these states, which was looking for support in the conflict with France over control of North Africa.

In 1882 the Triple Alliance was created. Germany and Italy assumed obligations of mutual assistance in the event of an attack by France, and Italy, in addition, promised Austria-Hungary neutrality in the event of a conflict with Russia. Bismarck also hoped that Russia would refrain from conflict with Germany due to close economic, dynastic and traditional political ties with it and the reluctance of the Russian emperor to enter into an alliance with republican, democratic France.

In 1904, they settled all mutual claims that arose in connection with the colonial division of the world and established “cordial agreement” among themselves. In French it sounds “Entente Cordial”, hence the Russian name for this alliance - Entente. Russia signed a military convention with France back in 1893. In 1907, she settled all her differences with England and actually joined the Entente.

Features of new unions

This is how unexpected and strange alliances developed. France and England have been enemies since the Hundred Years' War, Russia and France - since the revolution of 1789. The Entente united the two most democratic states in Europe - England and France - with autocratic Russia.

Two traditional allies of Russia - Austria and Germany - found themselves in the camp of its enemies. The alliance of Italy with its yesterday's oppressor and the main enemy of the unification - Austria-Hungary, on whose territory the Italian population also remained, also looked strange. The Austrian Habsburgs and the Prussian Hohenzollerns, who had been vying for control of Germany for centuries, found themselves in the same coalition, while blood relatives, cousins, William II on the one hand, Nicholas II and King Edward VII of Great Britain, his wife, were in opposing alliances.

Thus, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, two opposing coalitions emerged in Europe - the Triple Alliance and the Entente. The rivalry between them was accompanied by an arms race.

The creation of coalitions in itself was not unusual in European politics. Let us remember, for example, that the largest wars of the 18th century - the Northern and the Seven Years - were fought by coalitions, as were the wars against Napoleonic France in the 19th century.

Introduction

The course towards the formation of aggressive military blocs, pursued by states at any time, is a direct continuation of the “traditional” policies of some countries. This concerns, first of all, aggressive, aggressive goals, as well as the conditions for the participation of individual powers in these blocs. These conditions were and are determined by the strength of each participant in the aggressive bloc, the power of its capital, its military machine. At the same time, the pre-war course also has a number of significant features. The most characteristic thing is that within the framework of military blocs, states were divided into opposing groups. Military camps arose, uniting all the major countries and directed against each other.

Military blocs Entente, Triple Alliance, etc. were created in opposition to each other. They formed a system of imperialist military blocs. The interconnection of all links of this system was determined by the fact that the leading role in them from the very beginning belonged to the great powers.

The creation of a system of military blocs did not mean, of course, the elimination of imperialist contradictions between their participants. However, if in the past these contradictions led to the emergence of opposing military blocs, now inter-imperialist contradictions, developing within the framework of military blocs, were limited to a certain extent by the common interests of the main capitalist powers.

Entente

The Entente - an alliance of Great Britain, France and Russia, took shape in 1904-1907 and united more than 20 states, including the USA, Japan, and Italy, during the First World War (1914-1918) against the coalition of the Central Powers.

The creation of the Entente was preceded by the conclusion of a Russian-French alliance in 1891-1893 in response to the creation of the Triple Alliance (1882) led by Germany. The formation of the Entente is associated with the disengagement of the great powers at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, caused by a new balance of power in the international arena and the aggravation of contradictions between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy on the one hand, France, Great Britain and Russia, on the other.

The sharp intensification of Anglo-German rivalry, caused by Germany's colonial and trade expansion in Africa, the Middle East and other areas, and the naval arms race, prompted Great Britain to seek an alliance with France and then with Russia.

In 1904, a British-French agreement was signed, followed by a Russo-British agreement (1907). These treaties actually formalized the creation of the Entente.

Russia and France were allies bound by mutual military obligations determined by the military convention of 1892 and subsequent decisions of the general staffs of both states. The British government, despite contacts between the British and French general staffs and naval commands established in 1906 and 1912, did not make specific military commitments. The formation of the Entente softened the differences between its participants, but did not eliminate them. These differences were revealed more than once, which Germany took advantage of in an attempt to tear Russia away from the Entente. However, strategic calculations and aggressive plans of Germany doomed these attempts to failure.

In turn, the Entente countries, preparing for war with Germany, took steps to separate Italy and Austria-Hungary from the Triple Alliance. Although Italy formally remained part of the Triple Alliance before the outbreak of World War I, the ties of the Entente countries with it strengthened, and in May 1915 Italy went over to the Entente side.

After the outbreak of the First World War, in September 1914 in London, an agreement was signed between Great Britain, France and Russia on the non-conclusion of a separate peace, replacing the allied military treaty. In October 1915, Japan joined this agreement, which in August 1914 declared war on Germany.

During the war, new states gradually joined the Entente. By the end of the war, the states of the anti-German coalition (not counting Russia, which withdrew from the war after the October Revolution of 1917) included Great Britain, France, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Greece, Italy, China, Cuba, Liberia, Nicaragua , Panama, Peru, Portugal, Romania, San Domingo, San Marino, Serbia, Siam, USA, Uruguay, Montenegro, Hijaz, Ecuador, Japan.

The main participants of the Entente - Great Britain, France and Russia, from the first days of the war entered into secret negotiations on the goals of the war. The British-French-Russian agreement (1915) provided for the transfer of the Black Sea straits to Russia, the London Treaty (1915) between the Entente and Italy determined the territorial acquisitions of Italy at the expense of Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Albania. The Sykes-Picot Treaty (1916) divided Turkey's Asian possessions between Great Britain, France and Russia. entente triple alliance expansion

During the first three years of the war, Russia drew off significant enemy forces, coming quickly to the aid of the Allies as soon as Germany launched serious offensives in the West.

After the October Revolution of 1917, Russia’s withdrawal from the war did not disrupt the Entente’s victory over the German bloc, because Russia fully fulfilled its allied obligations, unlike England and France, who more than once broke their promises of help. Russia gave England and France the opportunity to mobilize all their resources. The struggle of the Russian army allowed the United States to expand its production power, create an army and replace Russia, which had emerged from the war - the United States officially declared war on Germany in April 1917.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the Entente organized an armed intervention against Soviet Russia - on December 23, 1917, Great Britain and France signed a corresponding agreement. In March 1918, the Entente intervention began, but the campaigns against Soviet Russia ended in failure. The goals that the Entente set for itself were achieved after the defeat of Germany in the First World War, but the strategic alliance between the leading Entente countries, Great Britain and France, remained in the following decades.

The general political and military leadership of the bloc's activities in various periods was carried out by: Inter-Allied Conferences (1915, 1916, 1917, 1918), the Supreme Council of the Entente, the Inter-Allied (Executive) Military Committee, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, the main headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, commanders-in-chief and headquarters at individual theaters of military operations. Such forms of cooperation were used as bilateral and multilateral meetings and consultations, contacts between commanders-in-chief and general staffs through representatives of the allied armies and military missions. However, the difference in military-political interests and goals, military doctrines, an incorrect assessment of the forces and means of the opposing coalitions, their military capabilities, the remoteness of the theaters of military operations, and the approach to the war as a short-term campaign did not allow the creation of a unified and permanent military-political leadership of the coalition in the war.